VOLUME IV OCTOBER, 1952 WHOLE NUMBER

CONTENTS

THE KASITA SITE ------Gordon R. Willey and William H . Sears 3

JuoACULLA R ocK ------Hiram C. Wilburn 19

jUDACULLA PLACE-NAMES AND THE jUDACULLA TALES ------Hiram C. Wilburn 2 3

A CHEROKEE MIGRATION FRAGMENT ______D. H . Corkra11 27 THE KASITA SITE GORDON R. WILLEY AND WILLIAM H. SEARS Archaeological excavations at the Lawson Field site on the Fort Benning Military Reservation, near Columbus, Georgia, were undertaken during three weeks in June of 1938. Work was conducted and financed by the National Park Service. Mr. J.D. Jennings, Acting Superintendent of Ocmulgee National Monu­ ment, detached a twenty man C.C.C. crew for a laboring force, with Gordon R. Willey as Archaeologist-in-charge. The project was jointly sponsored by the Society for Georgia Archaeology. Particular thanks are due the late Dr. C. C. Harrold, then presi­ dent of the Society, and Mrs. H. Wayne Patterson, who made the local arrangements. This report is based on Gordon Willey's field notes and the preliminary report which he prepared in 1938-1939. W. H. Sears edited, revised, and brought up to date this preliminary report. In the course of these revisions the pottery classifications were re-checked and the final ceramic tabulation was drawn up. Con­ clusions and comparisons were drafted by Sears in 1954 with review and agreement by Willey. Surface collections of sherds from the site were seen to be closely related to the Ocmulgee Fields complex, already identi­ fied as late seventeenth-and early eighteenth-century Creek in Central Georgia. A check of the documents indicated the town of Kasita as the most probable identification, which is supported by the results of the excavations. Perhaps the most conclusive pieces of evidence, indicating that the Lawson Field site is actually the remains of the town of Kasita, are Hawkin's description of the route from the falls­ at the present location of Columbus-to the town, his description of the surroundings1 and the Early Map of 1818.2 The description of the route checks out very well on modern maps, as does his description of the site and its surroundings. A similar course today will lead out only on Lawson's Field, the surroundings of which fit Hawkins's description. A description of the town in 1820 is also available, and may be quoted here. It appears to consist of about 100 houses, many of them elevated on poles two to six feet high, and built of unhewn

1. Swanton, 1922, pp. 222-223. 2. Reproduced in Swanton, 1922, end maps. 4 SOUTHERN INDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952

logs, with roofs of bark, and little patches of Indian Corn before the doors. In the center of the town we passed a large building with a conical roof, supported by a circular wall about three feet high; close to it was a quadrangular space, enclosed by four open buildings, with a row of benches rising above one another; the whole was appropriated, we wer e informed, to the great council of the town, who meet under shelter or in the open air, according to the weather. Near the spot was a high pole, like our May-poles, with a bird at the top, round which the Indians celebrated their Green Corn dance. The town or township of Cosita is said to be able to muster seven hundred warriors, while the number belonging to the whole nation is not estimated at more than 3,500.3 Unfortunately, most of what must have been a rather large site, judging by contemporary descriptions and by Moore's impression of it in 1907 as the Hall's Landing site,4 had been destroyed prior to excavation in the construction of Lawson Field. Excavation was limited to what must have been the extreme river edge of the town. (See map, Plate II.) In spite of this, there is, as noted above, little doubt that this is the location of the Creek Town of Kasita. The town was occupied by the Musk­ hogee-speaking Kasita Creeks from about 1715, when they returned from the upper Oconee-Ocmulgee area at the outbreak of the Yamassee wars, until the removal to Oklahoma shortly after 1830. The collections then are representative, as far as they go, of the culture of this period. This is a rather long time period, with a ceramic collection of only 3,284 sherds as the major cul­ tural diagnostic. Nevertheless, there seems little doubt that this collection is representative, a matter to be discussed in some detail further on.

EXCAVATION Taking into account the limited area of the site remaining, as well as the time and labor force available, excavation units were laid out to sample as much of the area as possible. On three main axes, units two and one-half by fifteen feet were staked out, spaced even distances apart. (See map, Plate II.) These units were designed for easy expansion, which was desirable in several cases. With very few exceptions, a rather scant artifact yield was confined to the sandy, plow-disturbed, recent humus.

:!. Hodgson, 1823, in Swanton, 1922, p. 224. 4. Moore, 1907, p. 449. Willey and Sears] KAsiTA SITE 5

There were encountered a few smaller refuse pits, a small amount of undisturbed midden in one trench, a rough post-hole alignment from a probably rectilinear building, and two burials. The only one with any grave goods was in the building area, the section expanded from Unit 37.

CERAMICS

Willey, with an independent check by Sears, analyzed sherds by excavation unit. When results were compared, after sherd batches were lumped from adjacent units with very low yields, no significant differences in areal distribution were observable. There is a hint that coarse plain sherds were commoner in the units of the 0 station, but all of these units together produced only 119 sherds, which were the smallest and most heavily eroded specimens found. This area seems to have been the fringe, or the fringe of the fringe, of the town. The ceramic complex is limited to five types, Ocmulgee Fields Incised,5 Chattahoochee Brushed,6 Kasita Red Filmed,7 a coarse plain ware and a smooth plain ware. We may discuss them in the order given. Ocmulgee Fields Incised: Except that no sherds of this, or any other type, were shell tempered at this site, the sherds of this type conform very closely to the published type description. Chattahoochee Brushed: The brushed ware found is defin­ itely the type which Bullens described on the basis of collections made further down the Chattahoochee River in the Jim Wood­ ruff Reservoir. With a rather larger sample on hand than was available to Bullen, some comments and additions may be in order. Brushing, performed with a bundle of fine twigs or coarse grass used broom fashion, seems to cover all of the vessel exterior between the neck constriction and the base. One slightly thick­ ened rim, brushed to the lip, was found, and one rim sherd with luted rim strip was brushed along its lower edge, below the neck constriction. This sherd, plus the paste and "feel" of others, leads to a strong suspicion that most of the rims with luted strips are from Chattahoochee Brushed vessels. Others may be

5. J ennings and Fairbanks, 1939. 6. B u llen, 1950, p . 103. 7. J ennings and Fair ban k s, 1940. 8. Bullen , 1950, p . 103. 6 SOUTHERN INDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952 from coarse plain pots. There are a number of irregularly rough­ ened sherds and two with cob-marking. These two are both from vessel necks, and one of them was brushed at one edge. These would seem to indicate that constricted necks were often not brushed and might well be cob-marked. Judging by areas of overlap, giving some idea of the size of the brush, a four- to six­ inch brush, quite probably round, may have been used. Use of a clay "wash" is improbable. The exterior surfaces, often blue-white or light gray, appear in many cases to have been self-slipped or "floated" befor e being brushed. Interiors have been so treated uniformly. This means simply that a wet hand or other wet tool was used to smooth the surfaces after the vessel was quite dry and sturdy. As Bullen notes, this type is rather abundant on the lower and middle Chattahoochee. A large number of thus far unre­ ported sites have been found on the Georgia side of the reservoir which are characterized by this pottery type.9 Since Bullen pub­ lished his description, it has become quite certain that the Creeks continued to manufacture this ware, along with Ocmulgee Fields Incised, in some quantities after the removal to Oklahoma. Com­ plete vessels have been reported by Schmittl0 and by Quimbly and Spoehr.11 Sherds of the two types have been found in Okla­ homa village sites12 where they have been called Mcintosh Roughened and Mcintosh Smoothed. The latter includes both our smooth plain ware and Ocmulgee Fields Incised. The names are from an unpublished 1948 report by Wenner. Ocmulgee Fields Incised clearly has priority and, since Mcintosh Roughened was unfortunately not published until three years after Bullen's description, it appears best that we stick to Bullen's term to avoid further confusion. A few trade sherds of Chattahoochee Brushed and a few of Kasita Red Filmed have been found in early historic Cherokee context at the Etowah site. It is also understood that a few of the brushed sherds were found elsewhere in this area.13 The Seminoles continued to make closely related pottery for some time.14 A closely related type is Walnut Roughened,15 a type found at the Trading Post at Ocmulgee National Monument,

9. Kelly , A. R . and Caldwell, J ., personal communication. 10. Schmitt, 1950, pp. 3-8. 11. Quimbly and Spoehr , 1950, pp. 49-51. 12. Proctor, 1953, pp. 47-53. 13. Ca!dweU, J ., personal communication. 14. Goggin, 1949, p. 37 and person al communication. 15. J ennings and Fairbanks, 1939. Willey and Sears] KAsiTASITE 7

Macon, in an occupation dated roughly between 1680 and 1715. This type, presumably manufactured by the Hitchiti Creeks, is shell tempered and employs more roughening techniques than does Chattahoochee Brushed. Rather oddly, with more and more data coming in all the time, its occurrence seems to remain limited to this one site. KasUa Red Filmed: Sherds so classified have the paste (again never with shell temper) of the type description, and the red paint. Temper here is very fine sand in sparse amounts. Some sherds feel very much like the chalky ware of the Florida area, while the other end of the range overlaps with the paste of Ocmulgee Fields Incised. No sherds were large enough to permit observation of designs. In five cases red paint was outlined by engraved lines; other cases, clearly the edges of painted areas, were not so outlined. The most common usage was red painting of the lip only. Vessel forms were indeterminate, excepting one plate, but most of the red painted lips were direct and rounded. Judged by curvature of these rims, the vessels seem most often to have been bowls, ranging from open to slightly compressed. Almost half of our red filmed sherds, sixteen or forty-eight per cent, were these lips. Coarse Plain: This ware ranges in paste characteristics from those of Chattahoochee Brushed, heavily tempered with coarse grit, to a paste with rather large amounts of coarse sand. The latter sherds could not be distinguished from sherds which can be found in almost any fully prehistoric assemblage in the area. I have no doubt that this category includes sherds from the neck and base areas of Chattahoochee Brushed jars. Of the twenty­ six rims classified in this category, seventy-three per cent are tapered to the lip, which is often slightly flattened. This is the firm form of sherds with the luted rim strip above the strip, which is often as much as two inches below the lip. Other sherds, rim and body, indicate that some plain jars and bowls were made from this paste. As Bullen16 points out, such plain sherds are very similar in their paste characteristic to Lake Jackson Plain. However, they are also similar to sherds from almost any proto­ historic or historic complex in the area, so that assignment to type is a matter of convenience. Perhaps when larger collections of sherds, not so thoroughly fragmented by the plow, become

16. Bullen, 1950, p. 103. 8 SOUTHERN INDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952 available, it will be possible to describe adequately this plain ware on the basis of characteristics other than paste. Smooth Plain: Actually two sorts of plain sherds, grading imperceptibly into one another, are included in this category. One sort is the often near temperless paste of the Kasita Red Filmed type, the other the grittier, usually harder, often near burnished paste and surface finish of Ocmulgee Fields Incised. Undoubtedly, a very large part of this assemblage of smooth plain sherds comes from vessels of the two decorated types. Ocmulgee Fields Incised vessels are decorated only above the shoulder area in most cases, leaving well over half the vessel surface for breakage into plain sherds. It is a bit more difficult to be certain of those Kasita Red Filmed vessels with the interior decoration. Certainly some large parts of such vessels would produce plain sherds. As noted above however, nearly half of our red filmed vessels were painted only on the lips. Most sherds from these vessels then would have to be classified as smooth plain. In addition to these possibilities, there are perfectly plain bowls and plates, including the cazuela form, in both variants of the smooth plain ware. Luted Rims: All had appliqued strip some distance below the lip, luted by depressing areas with round stick or by pinch­ ing up the high points. SHERD COUNT BY TYPES WITH PERCENTAGES OF TOTAL TYPE NUMBER PERCENr Ocmulgee Fields Incised 155 4.7 Chattahoochee Brushed 943 28.7 Kasita Red Filmed 33 1.0 Coarse Plain 326 9.9 Smooth Plain 1,739 52.9 Luted Rims 97 2.9

Total 3,293 100.1 TRADE MATERIAL Trade objects of Caucasian origin, consisting largely of kaolin pipe fragments and bottle glass sherds, were found sporadically throughout the site. A rather large collection of objects was found, however, with the burial in Unit 37, seem­ ingly intrusive into the remains of the amorphous structure Willey and Sears] KASITA SITE 9 represented by the post-holes in that area. The burial itself was almost completely decayed, but it could be seen that the position was semi-flexed on the right side with the head to the east. A listing of the trade objects found with this burial follows: (Illustrations of some of the better preserved specimens will be found in Plate I). Claw hammer, iron-1 Bells, bell-metal, iron clappers, av. 2% x 2% in.-4 Bells, hawk-bell type, llh in. diameter, letters K and W-5 Scrapers, bottle glass-2 Pipe, steatite-! (Aboriginal manufacture) Pipe, European white kaolin-! (plus stem fragments of others) Buttons, copper, flat, eyelet on reverse, 5/16 in. diameter-17 Adz, iron, octagonal hammer head on r everse, length 10lh in., maximum width 3% in.-1 Files, iron, triangular, with hafting tang. ca. 10 in. long, o/4 in. thick-2 Beads, trade-about 250 found. Included are small (ca. 3/16 in.) carrel shaped white wire-bound beads, somewhat smaller compressed spheroidal white beads, spheroidal clear blue glass beads ca. lf4 in. diameter, and a number of small beads in round or oval shapes with an inner layer of dark green glass, an overlay of tomato colored opaque glass, and a final layer of clear glass. Knife blades, ca. 4lh x lh in.-4 Clasp knives, blades about as above, wood or bone handles-4 Keys, iron, small. ca. lh in. long-2 Gun parts, from flintlock pan-2 Spikes, 5lh in. long, 3f4 in. square-several Chisel, iron, socket butt-9" long, 1lh in. cutting edge-1 Circlet, iron, oval-3% x 1lh in.-1 Bullet mold, iron, plier type, for .65-.75 cal. ball- 1 Hook, iron, 2lh in. long-fish hook?-1 Copper coil or spiral-2 in. diameter-! Pins, brass, straight- ca. 2 in. round heads-15 A large number of iron objects too heavily corroded for identification were also found. Fragments of cloth, from individ­ ual wrappings, clothing on the body, or burial wrappings, were found adhering to most objects. It may be that this catalogue, with the illustrations on Plate I, will be of some value in the future when further burials become available. The only comparable material now is from one burial described by Proctor, found on the Moody site in Oklahoma.l7 Two bullet molds which appear to be exactly the

17. Proctor, 1953, pp. 49-50. 10 SOUTHERN INDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952 same as the one described above, and a nearly identical file, were found. All trade objects were submitted to Mr. Arthur Woodward and Mr. Glenn Black for identification and dating. While the estimates vary somewhat, the dates for all specimens fall within a top date of about 1800 and a bottom date of around 1700. This is of course in complete agreement with the documentary evi­ dence for the date of the site. The beads with the tomato colored glass overlay on gr een glass have also been found on the historic site of Tugalo, which has a documented time span covering the first half of the eighteenth century. Mr. J ohn Witthoft (Personal Communication) notes that this bead type is seemingly restricted to the South, where such beads ar e also found on Joffre Coe's early 18th Century Siouan sites. This might well indicate that their point of entry into the area was Charleston, S. C., major trade center for the area in this period.

BOTANICAL SPECIMENS A number of charred corn cobs were found in a single pocket. Mr. Volney Jones, of the Ethnobotanical Laboratory, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, reports: (Report No. 117) It appears that two distinct types of cor~ are represented, one with ears of moderate size with ten rows of broad kernels, and the other of small size with fourteen rows of small kernels. It is impossible to estimate the length of the ears, but the diameter suggests the above conclusions as to size. Any statement as to probable variety of corn (such as flint corn, flour corn, etc.) would, because of the nature of the material, be based more or less on speculation or guess work. However, the ten-row corn suggests the few-rowed, broad-kerneled flour corn grown by some of the Eastern Indians (Algonkian and Iroquoian) and certain Plains tribes (Siouan and Caddoan). The smaller cob may possibly be of flint corn, but is not necessarily of this type.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS The outline of the material culture provided by these sherds and the trade objects from one burial, supplemented by the descriptions of Hawkins and Hodgson, is all the information we Willey and Sears] KASITA SITE 11 may expect to possess for the late eighteenth- and early nine­ teenth-century culture of the Creek Indians of Kasita town. Quite possibly further documents may come to light, but we cannot depend on this. The trade material is not particularly useful in historical reconstruction, except in its confirmation of the dating for this site, since there is so little of it and so little published comparable material. The ceramic complex however may be worth some comment. Quite clearly the brushed, incised, and red painted pottery is the ceramic representative of Kasita culture specifi­ cally and "Upper" Creek culture generally in the late eighteenth­ early nineteenth-century period. This is confirmed by the facts that the Seminole material from Florida is very close, or identical, and nearly if not completely identical pottery was made in Okla­ homa after 1830. We lack knowledge, however, of the Creek ceramic complex in the pre-1715 period, with one exception. A r elated ceramic complex found in association with the trading post at Ocmulgee National Monument seems to be representative of Hitchiti groups during a period running from approximately 1690 to approximately 1715. The roughened ware, Walnut Rough­ ened, while clearly related to Chattahoochee Brushed, is distinc­ tive in a number of ways, particularly in the use of shell temper which actually makes it very similar to the historic Chickasaw type Wilson Roughened18 (Jennings, 1941, p. 177). The recent discovery of some quantities of Spanish Majolica and Olive jar sherds in the trading post collections19 makes it clear that the group at the trading post must have come there from the Chatta­ hoochee River towns where Spanish contacts are recorded for as early as 1689 in the form of a small fort near Coweta.20 How­ ever, Walnut Roughened has not thus far been found on the Chattahoochee, the only known location in Georgia for the Creeks prior to their move to the upper Oconee-Ocmulgee, a move stimu­ lated by their desire for English trade contacts. It seems rather certain then that this historic Creek ceramic complex developed either on the lower and middle Chattahoo­ chee, or not in Georgia at all. There is an oft-repeated and gen­ erally accepted theory that this complex developed from "Lamar" pottery with the roughened ware developing from complicated stamping, the incised from Lamar Bold Incised, and the red

18. J ennings, 1941, p. 177. 19. F flirbanks 1952. 20. Boyd, Smlth and Griffin, 1951, p. 8. 12 SOUTHERN I N DIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952 filmed from some unnamed Lamar type.21 This is not the place for another discussion of what "Lamar" is. We may point out here that, using the term or concept as broadly as it was used in the various Lamar into Creek equations, the Cherokee made Lamar pottery in the full complex from before 1700 to about 1800. In the southern part of the state and in Northwest Florida, the ceramics which appear to be associated. with the Apalachee in the Spanish Mission period, 1650-1725, is a kind of Lamar22 as is that from the other side of the Florida peninsula along the Georgia coast.23 This latter finds its relationships and ancestry in the Irene complex,24 another "Lamar" variant, and through it up the Savannah and other drainages to North Georgia. All three of these complexes then, Cherokee, Apalachee or Leon-Jefferson, and Georgia coastal, may be viewed as in-place developments in the tradition of ceramic decoration with complicated stamps which is indigenous to the area. There is some room for doubt that this is true for the Creek ceramics, meaning by Creek the Kasita, Oconee, Ocmulgee and Hitchiti, to whom the discussion of the Ocmulgee Fields and the related Kasita manifestations usually refer. The only "Lamar" elements present in these his­ toric Creek assemblages are the luted rim strip, one variant of a rim-form style which was very widespread in the protohistoric and early historic periods, and the incised style which has many relatives through the areas to the north and west, in Middle Mississippian cultures of mature and late variants. It would seem as possible that the Creek ceramic complexes developed to the west, quite possibly in the East-Central Alabama area home­ land of the Upper Creeks, as that it developed in Georgia. It may well have developed there from a complex which never used complicated stamping, under some of the same influences which produced the "Lamar" styles adopted by the Apalachee, Cher­ okee, and so on, but subjected even more heavily to the influence of the brushing technique which has its roots in the west in the Plaquemine and other fully pre-historic complexes. Granted that brushing in Plaquemine is not the overall brushing of the Creek pottery,25 it makes as good an ancestor for brushed deco­ ration as does complicated stamping. A guess then, and only that, is that Creek culture developed

21. Fair banks, 1952. pp. 298-299; Jenn ings and Fairbanks, 1939 and 1940. 22. Smttn, 1948, pp. 316-318. 23. Larson, L., personal communication. 24. CaldweU and McCann, 1941, pp. 46-49. 25. Qui mby, 1951, pp. 109-110. Willey and Sears] KASITA SITE 13

P LATE I

3 4 2

6 7 5

9

II 12

13

15

THE KASITA SITE

1-2, Kasita complex jar rims; 3-4, Chattahoochee Bnc.shed; 5, Kasita Red Filmed; 6-7, Ocmulgee Fields Incised; 8, aborginal stone pipe; 9, kaolin trade pipe; 10, bullet mold; 11-12, bells; 13, file; 14, adz; 15, chisel. 14 SOUTHERN I NDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952

PLA'lE

... .,~; a CJ 0 .. f ..a • IJI

THE KAS11 Willey and Sears I KASITA SITE l5

. J E II

ASITA SITE 16 SouTHERN I N DIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952

PLATE HI

J u oACULLA RocK Willey and Sears] KASITA SITE 17

in the known Coosa-Tallapoosa area center for Upper Creek cul­ ture, and spread from there south and west to the Chattahoochee, marginal to the center. This must remain only a hypothesis. Further guess-work will not solve any problems. Until a unit which has some length in time has been located, one in which we can see a fully prehistoric complex developing to the historic one through the addition of the brushing treatment, we will not know. Certainly such a unit or units exists, and certainly if we wish to work out the history of these tremendously important groups, they will be found and the evidence published. Peabody Museum Harvard University Florida State Museum Gainesville

BIBLIOGRAPHY Boyd, Mark F ., Smith, H. G., and Griffin, J. W. 1951. H ere They Once Stood. Gainesville. Bullen, Ripley P . 1950. "An Archaeological Survey of the Chattahoochee River Valley in Florida." Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. 40, No. 4. Washington. Caldwell, J. and McCann, Catherine 1941. The Irene Mound and Village Site, Chatham County, Georgia. University of Georgia Series in Anthropology, No. 1. Athens. Fairbanks, Charles H. 1952. "Creek and Pre-Creek." In Griffin, James B. (ed.) Arche­ ology of Eastern United States. Chicago. Goggin, John 1949. "A Florida Indian Trading Post, Ca. 1673-1784." Southern Indian Studies, Vol. I, pp. 35-38. Chapel Hill. Jennings, J. D. 1941. "Chickasaw and Earlier Cultures of Northeast Mississippi." The Journal of Mississippi History, Vol III, No. 3, pp. 135-226. Jennings, J. D. and Fairbanks, C. C. 1939-1940. "Type descriptions: Walnut Roughened, Kasita Red Filmed, Ocmulgee Fields Incised." In Newsletter, Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Vols. I and II. Lexington. Moore, C. B. 1907. "Mounds of the Lower Chattahoochee and Lower Flint Rivers." Journal of t he Academy of Natural Sciences oj Philadelphia, Vol. XIII. Philadelphia. 18 SouTHERN INDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952

Proctor, Charles C. 1953. "Report of Excavations in the Eufaula Reservoir." Bulletin of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society, Vol. I , No. 1, 1953. Oklahoma City. Quimby, George 1951. "The Medora Site." AnthropoLogicaL Series, Field Museum of NaturaL H istory, Vol. XXIV, No. 2. Chicago. Quimbly, G. and Spoehr, A. 1950. "Historic Creek Pottery from Oklahoma." American Antiq- uity, Vol. XV, No. 2, pp. 249-251. Salt Lake City. Schmitt, Karl 1950. "Two Creek P ottery Vessels from Oklahoma." The FLorida Anthropologist, Vol. III, Nos. 1-2. Gainesville. Smith, Hale G. 1948. "Two Historical Archaeological Periods in Florida." A merican Antiquity, Vol. XIII, No. 4. Menasha. Swanton, J ohn R. 1922. "Early History of the Creek Indians and their Neighbors." Smithsonian I nstitution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bul­ letin 73. Washington. JUDACULLA ROCK1 HIRAM C. WILBURN In order to obtain a fuller concept of this notable relic of Cherokee occupancy some statement about the great mythical character, Judaculla himself, is necessary. To begin with the name, Ju-da-cul-la, is the whiteman's corruption of the Cherokee word, Tsul-ka-lu. This word is derived from the root which means the idea of something leaning or slanting. In the case of Judaculla it r efers to his eyes. He had them slanting, and he was sometimes referred to as the Great Slant-eyed Giant. He had his principal abode on the Tennessee Bald. His dance ground was within the rocky in'ards of the Devils Courthouse. He wooed and wed his wife at the old Cherokee town, Ka-nu-ga, which was located on the west side of the West Fork of Pigeon river, about one mile south of Bethel school in Haywood county. His garden or field, commonly known as the J udaculla Old Field, was on the southwest slope of Richland Balsam mountain, from whence he jumped eight miles down the valley of Caney Fork creek, and upon landing, made the scratches on Judaculla Rock. This latter statement about the origin of the scratches or carvings on the rock is, however, out of accord with any reason­ able explanation of the origin and meaning of the rock and its characters. The amazing thing about the Judaculla tales is that, while Judaculla and his reputed activities are wholly mythical in character, some seven physical features, including the rock, are objects that have derived their names from these myths. There have been a number of attempts to explain the rock and its characters. Several scientists have examined it, but most have shaken their heads negatively. The following hypothesis has evolved in my thinking over a period of some fifteen years. Con­ tributing to this thinking have been: first, careful consideration of the rock and the characters on it; second, consideration of other cultural material found in its immediate vicinity; third, com­ parison and coordination of the best and most rational traditions about the rock and the meaning of its characters; and fourth, study of Cherokee historical material that may lend support to the hypothesis. It is submitted for what it may be worth. Cer­ tainly, not as The Answer. First, I believe that Judaculla Rock is undoubtedly of Cher­ okee origin. This seems to be supported by the kind and nature

1. Reprinted with minor changes from Ashevtlte Citizens-Times, July 18, 1954. 20 SOUTHERN INDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952 of cultural remains found in the vicinity of the rock. On the adjacent bottom land flint and quartz arrowheads, broken pot­ tery, of both clay and steatite, have been found. This is evidence of an Indian village, or perhaps of a camp site, and is similar in character to objects found on other known Cherokee townsites. On the ridge a few hundred feet above the rock is much evidence of Indian "work". The rock out-crops are of the same material (steatite or soapstone) as the rock itself. A number of them stick up out of the ground knee-high to shoulder-high. Several show signs of having been "worked". The main purpose was, evidently, the making of mortors. Large chunks of rock have been cut off and carried away. In at least one instance the bowl of a mortor has been hollowed out, the end partially rounded off, and back of the bowl girdled, but left unfinished. Another had been separated from the bed rock, the bowl roughed out, but was left on the ground unfinished, probably on account of some flaw in the material. Many fragments and chippings lay scattered on the ground. Weathering conditions on these "work­ ings" indicate that this work may have been done near the time that the carvings on the rock were made. Briefly, it is my belief that the rock is a pictograph­ diagram, or maybe a better term would be picture-map, of the battle of Tal-i-wa fought in the year 1755. This was a hard fought battle between the Cherokee and their long-time enemy, the Creek Nation. The location was near the present town of Canton, Georgia. The Creeks were badly defeated and driven from the field. Also as a result of this battle they were driven from their old settlements in north Georgia. This territory was immediately taken over and occupied by the Cherokee, and they were still in possession of it at the time of the final treaty of 1835-36. A glance at the picture reveals a transverse heavy line two­ thirds or more down from the top or north side of the diagram. This line may represent the Cherokee as over-running the battle­ field and driving the Creeks off of the battlefield and over the contested territory below the line. Other lines running from cen­ ters in the Cherokee area may represent sally points and lines of attack as carried out by different sub-chiefs in the engage­ ment. Individual pictographs, such as, a bird, a tree, or a fish, may represent some specific action. For instance, the bird may represent some exploit, or perchance the wounding of The Raven, a known leader present at the battle. The tree could represent a Wilburn] JUDACULLA ROCK 21 point where a notable encounter took place. The fish might represent the killing of Kingfisher who is known to have lost his life in the battle. Incidentally, his wife who was with him in the battle, took his gun and fought through the remainder of the battle. And as a result of her heroic action she became the great "Beloved Woman" of the Cherokees, known in history as Nancy Ward. The characters below the divisional line in the Creek area of the map may represent blood splotches, and other insignia intended to represent the defeat and death of the enemy Creek Indians. Now to tie the historical facts to the rock. The rock as shown in the picture is oriented approximately north and south. In my inquiries among the old settlers in the neighborhood where Judaculla Rock is located, it was related to me as a tradition handed down from a previous generation that the characters on the rock did represent a notable and decisive battle by the Cher­ okees in which they drove their enemies far to the South. These same sources said that in the recollection of the previous genera­ tion, large groups of Cherokee Indians used to assemble at the rock, and remain for a day or two. Solemn ceremonies or rituals would be carried on. The older members of the group with a long cane as a pointer would indicate different objects on the rock, and this would be followed by exclamations and animated chants. These visitations were likely as late as the 1880s and 1890s. The leaders of the groups, as well as some of the others, came from the West long after the Removal of 1838. These notable visitations and the demonstrations at the rock may have been the Cherokee's way of dramatizing and celebrating their rightful ownership of the vast territory of lands which was theirs by reason of conquest and occupancy at the time of the Removal. The state of Georgia forced the execution of the Schermerhorn Treaty of March 14, 1835 which less than ten per cent of the Cherokee signed. I think it should be said that weathering and people walking on the face of the rock have partially obliterated some of the details. Effort was made to chalk faithfully the carvings so that they would show more plainly in the picture. But even so, it was difficult to determine in some instances whether a slight depres­ sion was the result of weathering or part of the original design. Waynesville North Carolina JUDACULLA PLACE-NAMES AND THE JUDACULLA TALES !imAM C. Wn.BURN In the previous article about Judaculla Rock mention was made of Tennessee Bald, Devil's Courthouse, Ka-nu-ga, Juda­ culla Old Field, and Judaculla Rock, as being associated with the great Slant-eyed Giant, Judaculla. To that list should be added, Judaculla Ridge, Judaculla Mountain, and the "track rock" of Cold Mountain, known to the Cherokee as Dat-tsu-na­ las-gun-yi. This story is to deal with the geographical location and the meanings of these natural features and objects that owe their names and stories to the mythological life and activities of Judaculla. If we take the Tennessee Bald, which marks the junction of the Great Balsam range with the Tennessee Ridge and the south­ west terminus of the Pisgah Ridge, as a center then all these points lie within a radius of some fifteen miles. About sixteen winding miles of the crest of the Balsam range is included. Figuratively, this terrain fairly sizzles with the Judaculla and other Cherokee tales. Arthur Huger, writing under the pen name of Chucky Joe, in 1904, designated this section of the range as the "Judaculla Mountains," just as he calls the Plott Balsams the "Junaluska Mountains." Maybe a good starting point would be Ka-nu-ga, an old and prehistoric Cherokee town on the West Fork of Pigeon River, about one mile south of Bethel School in Haywood county. It was here that Judaculla, though of supernatural size and possessed with power over the elements such as the wind, rain, thunder and lightning as well as owning all the game animals, wooed and wed his wife, a normal Cherokee maiden. This girl, the daughter of a widow, had been trained and strictly instructed not to marry any one except a good hunter who could supply the family with meat and other necessities. On learning of this at the time of his first visit Judaculla, ever afterwards on his courting trips, brought deer and other game animals which he hung on the drying poles outside the cabin. In addition to his great slanting eyes, Judaculla had other abnormal features that made him a horrible looking creature to behold. At her first sight of him the mother-in-law made such 24 SOUTHERN INDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952 exclamations about his looks that he would never afterward per­ mit her or any of his wife's relatives to see him. This led to family troubles, and so Judaculla decided to carry his family, now composed of his wife and two children, to his own dwelling place on Tennessee Bald, known in Cherokee lore as Tsul-ka-lu­ tsu-na-gun-yi. They traveled the trail along the west Fork of Pigeon River, camping several times on the way as the children could not travel fast. At one of these camping places at the foot of Cold Mountain the children played on a large rock and left their footprints which, according to Cherokee legend, are still there. By reason of these foot impressions at its base Cold Mountain is known to the Cherokee as Da-tsu-la-gun-yi, meaning where they made tracks. After the departure of J udaculla and his wife, the mother and others of the family were despondent and longed to see the girl and her strange husband. They made several trips to the vicinity of Tennessee Bald, and could sometimes see and converse with the woman, but always, by some pretext, the Giant would thwart their wish to see him. They could look through an open­ ing in the solid rock wall of Devils Courthouse into a great cavern within its rocky in'ards, where was a spacious dance ground and many people. Inside they could discern a mysterious presence and hear strange voices, all of which they r ecognized as emanating from the ghostly giant. One and one-half miles distant southwest from Devils Court­ house is Tennessee Bald, known in Cherokee mythology as Tsul­ ka-lu-tsu-ne-gun-yi, which means the dwelling place of Juda­ culla. Tennessee Bald is also only a little over one-half mile southwest of Beech Gap, and about 215 feet higher. James Mooney in his Myths of the Cherokee, from which most of these stories come, describes Judaculla Old Field as being on the slope of Tennessee Bald. In this he or his informants, Old Swimmer and John Axe, seemingly are confused. As a matter of fact the Judaculla Old Field is located on the south and west slope of Richland Balsam Mountain, about eight winding miles along the crest of the Balsam range, toward the northwest from Tennessee Bald. Also on this divide which constitutes the bound­ ary between Jackson and Haywood counties from Tennessee Bald to Balsam Gap, there are a number of bald spots or bald peaks. In Cherokee legend these were caused by the giant, Wilburn] JUDACULLA TALES 25

Judaculla, stepping from peak to peak as he traveled about look­ ing after the things under his control. The Blue Ridge Parkway is projected to follow near the crest of this divide from Beech Gap to Richland Balsam, skirting its southwest slope, and passing through the lower edge of Judaculla Old Field; thence passing Old Bald, Steestachee Bald, and Westner Bald to Balsam Gap. In confirmation of the above location of J udaculla Old Field I have interviewed in the past several years a dozen or more local people, some land owners, others cattle rangers, hunters, wood cutters, and all of them are positive about the location as being on the slope of Richland Balsam. This information was of Indian origin, going back a great many years. The Stringfield family in Waynesville have owned for nearly a hundred years a large tract of grazing and timber land adjacent to, and I think, including a small portion of the field. Their original deeds men­ tion Judaculla Ridge, which runs south from Richland Balsam and the old field. In the 1880s Zeigler and Grosscup, authors of the well known descriptive volume, Heart of The Alleghanies, made a bear-hunt­ ing and observation trip into the Balsams. They traveled the range from the vicinity of Old Bald to, and beyond Richland Balsam. In their account they indicated and described Judaculla Old Field as set out above. There were in their party a number of well known hunters and woodsmen from both Haywood and Jackson counties. They were informed by these local people about the location of the field, and that there had been consider­ able Indian relics such as broken pottery, arrowheads, and the like found in the old field. As indicated above, Judaculla Ridge, a well known physical feature, runs south from Richland Balsam and from the lower edge of Judaculla Old Field. It was from this old field, accord­ ing to one interpretation, that the Giant, Judaculla, jumped or stepped about eight miles southwest, straight down the main axis of Caney Fork creek, and upon landing on Judaculla Rock, made the scratches on it. From Mooney's location of the old field on Tennessee Bald, the Rock is a direct west course over twelve miles, and two or three high ridges and several stream valleys lie between. Even the eight miles from Richland Balsam is a considerable "leap" for the mythical ghost, god or devil, Judaculla. But the twelve mile "leap" from Tennessee Bald, across the intervening 26 SOUTHERN INDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952 terrain, would strain ones credulity, even in the realm of Cher­ okee 1[ythology. 1[oving now another winding eight miles along the crest of the Balsam range, from Richland Balsam to the vicinity of Balsam Gap, we come to another Judaculla place-name, "Juda­ culla Mountain." This mountain is a northeast-southwest trend­ ing detached feature, about three miles long. It lies between the Southern Railway tracks and highway 19-23 and stretches from Balsam Gap to near Willets station on the Railroad. In earlier times this unusual ridge was referred to several times in land descriptions as "1[ountain Island," evidently for the reason that it is almost entirely surrounded by two branches of Scott's Creek. Some of the older people living about the head of Scott's Creek related that the Cherokee Indians in comparatively recent time, on being asked about Judaculla, Judaculla 1[ountain, and so forth, would always reply with a laugh, and speak in a more or less derisive manner, but they all knew about Judaculla tales. If, '-l:. the other hand, they were asked about Junaluska, a more serious mien would be evident. The reply would be: "Good man! Great Chief." I think these Judaculla place-names, and their correct loca­ tions are important for the reason that the Blue Ridge Parkway, when finally completed, will pass by the immediate vicinity of each of them, except Judaculla Rock and the "track rock" at the base of Cold 1[ountain. In the years to come thousands of visitors will be asking about the places and the origins of the names. Waynesville North Carolina A CHEROKEE MIGRATION FRAGMENT D. H. CORKRAN Because of their integration into the cultural complex of the southeastern Indians it is difficult to think of the Cherokees as ever having lived in the north. However, they must at one time have been in the far north, if not as Cherokees, then as part of a body of Iroyuoian peoples. Two centuries ago they had a migration story, since lost to them, mentioning ice, cold, snow, and long travel through the arctic night. As told in about 1717 to the Carolina trader Alexander Long, it ran as follows: four oure coming here we know now noething but what was had from our ancestors and has brought it down from genera­ tion to generation/ / the way is thus wee belonged to another land far distant from heare/ / and the people increased and multi­ plied so fast that the land could not hold them soe that they were forst to separate and travele to look out for another countray I / they travelled soe four that they came to a countray that was soe could that (obscure here) ... yet goeing still one they came to mountains of snow and ice the prestes held a coun­ cil to pass these montains/ / and that they believed there was warmer wether one the other sid of those mountains because it lay near the sone setting which was beleved by the whol assembly wee were forst to make raccits (Snowshoes) to put on our ould and yonge/ / and passed one our journey and at last found our our soe fare gone over these mountains till we lost sight of the same and went thrues darkness for a good space and then ... the sone again and goeing one we came to a coun­ tray that could be inhabited and there we multiplaid so much that we over spread all this maine, we brought all maner graines such as coren and pease pumpkins and muskmelon as for all sorte of wild frute wee found heare naturalay grow­ ing/ /as we were one our jrnay over these mountains we lost a vast quantitie of people by the onseasonable could and dark­ ness that we went thrue/ / when wee come one this maine first wee were all one languige/ /but the prid and ambeshun of some of the leading men that caused . . . amonst the traibes/ /they separated from one and other and the languige was corrupted I /moreover we are tould by our ancestors that when wee first came on this land that the prestes and beloved men was writting but nott one paper as you doe but one white deare skins and one the shoulder bones of buflow for severall yeares but the .... of the young people being so grate thatt they would nott obey the priest nor . . . . but lett thire minds rone after hunting of wild beasts that the writing was qute lost and could not be recovered againe Soe much for thire comeing on this maine . . .1

1. Alexander Longe, "A Small Postscript of the ways and maners of th e nashon of indians ca lled Ch erikees .. . this smaller peace was writ by one who write the journal of 74 pages." Papers of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Photostat. Manuscript Division of the Librar y of Congress. pp. 20-21. 28 SOUTHERN I NDIAN STUDIES [IV, 1952

This tale, though arresting, contains several items which from contemporary viewpoints are improbable, such as: the eastern Indians once had a for m of writing other t han picto­ gr aph ; they brought "all maner graines such as coren and pease, pumpkins and muskmelon and watermelon;" finally, their inter-continental migration could have been from east to west, if that is the meaning of "nearer to the sane setting." These improbabilities in the tale should not, however, be regarded as reflecting upon the credibility of Long as a r eporter, for most, if not all of his cultural data, is confirmed in later materials.2 Some such cataclysmic interruption of the continuity of the Cherokee tribal orat ion as occurred in the very late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century could also have taken place at a much earlier date; so that a fragment of the earlier story or a dim tribal memory of the past could have flowered in a new setting with rationalizations of current phe­ nomena. The persistence in the older Cherokee lore of the idea that the red man came from the east should probably be considered as having geographically a relatively local meaning and mytho­ logically a religious origin. Geographically it could refer to the migration from northeast Tennessee and east of the Alleghenies suggested by Hicks.3 Mythologically it probably stems from the the story that the sun, whose home is in the east, created the redman.4 Actually the movement toward the "sone setting" outlined in the above fragment is not necessarily an east to west move­ ment. It is primarily a movement toward a warmer climate. To a woodland people marching through the arctic one direction would be inevitable-the south. Such a people, having passed into Alaska toward the end of the long arctic summer, would perceive the setting sun on the southern horizon. That way lay warm weather. The material presented by Long may well be an account of a crossing from Northeast Asia into northwestern North America. Chicago Illinois

2. See Payne Manuscripts, Vol. III, pp. 1-3, 95-99, for confirmation of Cherokee ceremonialism presented by Longe. 3. C. R. Hicks, F eb. 1, 1826, Payne Manuscript, Vol. VII. pp. 1-4. H aywood , Natural and Aborginal H istory of Tennessee, pp. 226, 233, and 236. 4. Payne M anuscript, Vol. I, pp. 20 and 23.